''Witness'' is a 1995

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

-language

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by

Thakkali Srinivasan Thakkali Srinivasan is an Indian film director, musician and producer who has worked on Tamil films, often involving horror or murder mystery plotlines. Career Thakkali Srinivasan began his career off as a producer and made the science fiction ...

. The film stars Nizhalgal Ravi,

Gautami Gautami Tadimalla (born 2 July 1969), known mononymously as Gautami, is an Indian actress and politician who has worked mainly in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films in addition to Hindi, and Kannada films. She was one of the leading South India ...

, Aamani,

Raghuvaran Raghuvaran Velayutham (11 December 1958 – 19 March 2008) was an Indian actor who predominantly acted in films made in South India. He has acted in more than 200 Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. According to the ''Hindustan T ...

and

Suresh Suresh is an Indian masculine given name originating in the Sanskrit word ' (compound of ' and '). Its meaning is "Ruler of Gods" and it has been used an epithet for the Hindu gods Indra, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. People named Suresh include: * Su ...

, with

J. Livingston Philip Livingston Jones, commonly credited by his mononym Livingston is an Indian actor, comedian and screenwriter who usually plays in supporting and comedy roles in Tamil films. He is credited as Ranjan in his earlier films such as '' Captain ...

, Thakkali Srinivasan,

Chinni Jayanth Chinni Jayanth (born Krishnamurthy Narayanan on 26 July 1960) is an Indian film director, producer, comedian, actor and mimicry artist who has appeared in many main, character and supporting roles in Tamil films. He is also a popular television ...

and Baby Sowmya playing supporting roles. It was released on 14 July 1995.

Plot

A serial killer targeting prostitutes goes on a murdering rampage in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

. The bodies of three prostitutes were discovered by the police, but there were no signs of sexual assault. The police inspector Vikram ( Nizhalgal Ravi) takes in charge of the case. Dhanasekhar and Ashok are two sub-inspectors who are put onto the case to assist Vikram. A fourth victim, a prostitute, is then found murdered in a hotel room. Luckily, Vikram's girlfriend Uma ( Aamani), a journalist, took a picture of the presumed serial killer along with the fourth victim and show it to Vikram. Vikram continues his investigation and discovers that the presumed serial killer, Niranjan (

), is wanted by the

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

police. Niranjan went to jail several times for forgery. According to the information collected by the police informants, Niranjan will be at a nightclub for a special event. Vikram with his assistants finally catch Niranjan, but during the fight, Dhanasekhar has been wounded severely. At the court, Niranjan confesses that he had killed only one prostitute. That night, the prostitute discovered weapons in his suitcase and fearing that she will call the police, he killed her. Niranjan denies killing the other prostitutes, but the public prosecutor Priya (

) and Vikram prove otherwise. The court has sentenced Niranjan with a death penalty. Days passed, and the murders of prostitutes continued in Chennai. Vikram and Priya realize that they have made a big mistake. Priya tells to Vikram that a similar case happened a few years ago in

Madurai Madurai ( , also , ) is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. As of the 2011 census, it was the third largest Urban agglomeration in ...

. A serial killer murdered seven prostitutes, but the case is still unsolved. Priya's husband Ramesh (

) and brother Suresh (

), who were police officers, investigated on these murders. One night, Ramesh told Priya that he found a shred of conclusive evidence. He and Suresh immediately took the police jeep to catch the serial killer. Later that night, they died in a car accident. Vikram starts looking into the Madurai's rape case and finds out that someone changed the post-mortem report of Ramesh and Suresh. Ramesh and Suresh did not die in the car accident, but they were killed by the serial killer. The police officer Ashok then reveals to Uma that he is the serial killer. In the past, Ashok's mother (

K. S. Jayalakshmi K. S. Jayalakshmi is an Indian actress who works in the Tamil cinema, Tamil film and television industries. She has acted in comedy roles in movies. Jayalakshmi made her acting debut in the Tamil film ''Etharkum Thuninthavan'' released in 1976 ...

) was a prostitute, and Ashok could not bear the fact that his mother slept with other men for money, so he killed her at the age of eight. Ashok then became a police officer and continued his murdering rampage. He closed the cases in which he was involved before anyone even notices. After confessing everything, Ashok strangles Uma and she faints. Vikram later arrests him for murdering Uma, and Ashok's lawyer Srinivasan (

) defends him. Uma, who was supposed to be dead, survived. She arrives at the court and reveals that Ashok tried to kill her that night. The court judge postpones the judgment for the next hearing. If Uma testifies against Ashok and tells everything at the court, Ashok will be sentenced to life imprisonment. Srinivasan then advises Ashok to escape from police custody. Ashok manages to escape from the police. The court orders the police department to catch the serial killer Ashok dead or alive. Afterward, Vikram and the police department surround him, and Ashok is gunned down by Priya.

Cast

* Nizhalgal Ravi as Vikram *

as Priya * Aamani as Uma *

as Ramesh, Priya's husband *

as Suresh, Priya's brother *

as Niranjan *

as Srinivasan *

as Musthafa *Baby Sowmya as Chithra *Prasanna Kumar as Manmadha Rajan *

as Ashok's mother *Indra Devi as a prostitute *

Disco Shanti Santha Kumari (born 28 August 1965), famously known as Disco Shanti, is an Indian actress who was particularly famous in South India for her appearances in item numbers. She has appeared in more than 900 films in different languages of India, ...

as a prostitute *

Silk Smitha Vijayalakshmi Vadlapati (2 December 1960 – 23 September 1996), better known by her stage name Silk Smitha, was an Indian actress and dancer who worked predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. Smitha was part of ...

in a special appearance

Soundtrack

The film score and the soundtrack were composed by

film composer A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to e ...

s Premi - Seeni. The soundtrack, released in 1995, features 3 tracks with lyrics written by Muthu Bharathi.

Reception

Thulasi of ''Kalki'' wrote "Every scene is perfectly crafted to keep you on the edge of your seat. But there are some hiccups. It seems that some scenes are repeated .Still kudos to the director for trying out something new."

References

{{reflist 1995 films 1990s Tamil-language films Indian thriller films Indian serial killer films 1995 thriller films 1990s serial killer films